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... ts to look at the numbers more thoughtfully. For example, the numbers of immigrants entering the United States given in the introduction of this article may seem very high, but taking into consideration that the population of the country also grows, "the relative incidence of current immigration to the United States is rather modest, " as Kennedy puts it (311). According to the U. S.
Census Bureau reports in 1994 the foreign-born people represented only 8. 7 % of the American population (311). Secondly, in order to have a clear understanding of the economic impact of immigration on the nation, one should weight not only expenses, but profits as well. Here, Kennedy gives an example to support his argument, which Mills does not take into consideration when he criticizes pro-immigration enthusiasts for welcoming immigrants. Kennedy mentions the fact that many immigrants come to the country as well-educated productive workers. Their native country raised them and gave them an education, whereas the receiving country rips the fruits by using them, so to say. In this case, as Kennedy puts it, "the source society has in effect subsidized the economy of the host society" (312).
As well as Mills, Kennedy explores the impact of low-skilled immigrants on the American economy, but two of them disagree on results. Although Kennedy acknowledges that "large numbers of unskilled immigrants may in the long run retard still higher potential outputs" and impose hardships on the low-skilled native workers, but as long as the host society needs them "the availability of unskilled immigrants may increase the economy's overall efficiency by freeing significant numbers of better-educated native workers to pursue higher-productivity employment" (312). Furthermore, Kennedy also recognizes the fact that only 20 percent come to the United States under "employment-based" criteria (312). He agrees with Mills that much larger numbers of immigrants come as relatives of citizens and legal aliens and some of them do become dependents on Welfare, but Kennedy is certain that "immigrants are not parasitic on the "native" economy but productive participants in it" (313). He supports this statement by saying that unemployment rates among immigrants are not higher than among native workers (313). To support his reason that the country needs immigrants Kennedy refers to the numbers given by the Stanford economist Clark W.
Reynolds who concluded that "The United States, in contrast, if its economy to grow at a rate of three percent a year, must find somewhat between five million and 15 million more workers than can be supplied by domestic sources" (313). Finally, summarizing the economic aspect of immigration, Kennedy returns to his question of whether the United States can afford to be a nation of immigrants and paraphrases it into Can it afford not to be? Thus, underlining his view that an immigrants an important economic resource and the American society needs them as much as they need it. Despite the fact that both articles have more differences than similarities, there is no doubt that the compromise can be found. First of all, both Mills and Kennedy should realize that their propositions are too extreme.
While to close the borders as Mills suggests is unrealistic, to increase the flow of immigration as suggests Kennedy may cause problems, which the author does not take into consideration in his article, such as overpopulation, dwindling resources, pollution and so on. Therefore, the compromise may be obtained in accepting the middle position, which is very well presented by Linda Chavez in the article "What to Do about Immigration. " She agrees with Mills that some immigrants burden the society with additional expenses. But she is only against those who come to the United States illegally and live on Welfare. She is against those who do not bother to learn language, demand bilingual education and oppose Only-English government policy.
At the same time she does not deny that some immigrants become benefit the society. "Most immigrants still seem to personify the very traits we think of as typically American: optimism, ambition, perseverance the qualities that have made this country great" (336). She gives examples of immigrants who were and are successful in their new motherland and who contribute to the prosperity of the country. Chavez talks about positive changes in urban America. She praises hard-working immigrants who "still take the difficult, often dirty, low-paying, thankless jobs that other Americans shun" (337).
On top of that, she argues with Mills that even poor and uneducated immigrants "show few of the dysfunctional characteristics of unemployment, crime, welfare dependency, and drug use common among the citys black and Puerto Rican underclass" (311). In one word, while she, unlike Kennedy does not see the urge to invite more immigrants, her position towards immigration is positive. At the same time she shares the same opinion that that due to liberal laws the flow of immigration gets out of control and agrees with Mills the officials need to implement tougher sanctions on immigrants. She suggests to admit more skillful and less unskillful immigrants, to limit Welfare benefits, to require from immigrants inviting their relatives "to accept full financial responsibility for up to five years", to improve border control, to deny citizenship to children born from illegal immigrants and other measures (334).
Thus, Chavez offers the middle ground for both Mills and Kennedy, which can be formulated as following: We can not shut the borders, but we can improve border control and immigration policies to regulate the flow of immigration. We have to accept the fact that along with high-skilled and well-educated immigrants which can be an asset to the society, a certain amount of people comes, who become dependent on government aid. But this is the price the American society has to pay in exchange for higher profits. So instead of trying to get rid of the immigrants Americans will profit more in helping them to assimilate with American culture. According to Chavez "it is still possible to turn immigrants into what St. John de Crevecouer called a new race of men provided the rest of us still want to do this (337).
In conclusion, I would like to point out that being an immigrant myself I see many problems with different eyes, but at the same time I am very concern about the American society, economics and culture, because I consider the United States my new motherland and I want it to prosper. To my opinion, the best the American society can do regarding immigration is like Kennedy concentrate on positive aspects of immigration, as Mills be aware of the problems, and work out the solutions like Chavez does. And regarding the ethnic and cultural imbalance that some Americans fear the problem seems to be somewhat exaggerated. Many Americans enjoy Mexican cuisine, like to dance salsa, and build the houses in Spanish stile, why not to accept people themselves?
Bibliography: Works cited Chavez, Linda. "What to Do about Immigration. " The Aims of Argument. A Rhetoric and Reader. 2 nd ed. Ed. Timothy W.
Crusius and Carolyn E. Channel: Mayfield Publishing, Mountain View, California, 1998: 327 - 337. Kennedy, David. "Can We Still Afford to Be a Nation of Immigrants?" The Aims of Argument. A Rhetoric and Reader. 2 nd ed.
Ed. Timothy W. Crusius and Carolyn E. Channel: Mayfield Publishing, Mountain View, California, 1998: 304 - 325. Mills, Nicolaus. "Lifeboat Ethics and Immigration Fears. " The Aims of Argument. A Rhetoric and Reader. 2 nd ed.
Ed. Timothy W. Crusius and Carolyn E. Channel: Mayfield Publishing, Mountain View, California, 1998: 339 - 347.
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